Aftab Ali’s calls to Pakistan landed him in police net

Mumbai: The Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) started keeping an eye on alleged Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agent Aftab Ali, who was recently arrested, in January itself, after the UP police busted a fake SIM card racket in that state. While going through the call data record (CDR) of the numbers, they found that Ali had made several calls to Pakistan.

In a joint operation, the Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra ATS arrested two suspected ISI agents from Mumbai’s Pydhonie area on Wednesday and Thursday. The investigators claimed that the accused are hawala operators and provided financial help to other ISI agents working in India. Early on Wednesday, the Uttar Pradesh ATS team unearthed an espionage racket by arresting suspected ISI agent Ali from UP’s Faizabad.

According to sources, in January UP police officials’ unearthed a SIM card scam in which they found Ali’s number suspicious. A source said, “UP police found in CDR that he had made several calls to Pakistan. The UP ATS started keeping an eye on him when they received some intelligence inputs that warned of a possible terror attack in the state by ISI-trained terrorists. Investigators claimed that Ali received training from the ISI in Pakistan and was in constant touch with officials from the Pakistan high commission. He has sent several army videos to a Pakistan-based ISI officer.”

“Ali met ISI agent Meherban Ali in Delhi, who was later deported to Pakistan by India. Aftab Ali had tried to get a visa to Pakistan three times as his grandparents live there but he could not get it, when Meherban met him and radicalised him to work against India,” the source added.

After Ali’s arrest, officials discovered financial transactions between him and Altaf Qureshi, who was staying at Pydhonie. Qureshi and his associate Javed Naviwala (26) were arrested on Wednesday evening.  Sources said the duo had conducted several hawala transactions with Ali and sent money to other ISI agents in India and abroad.